Breakdown of Nous nous sommes fait escroquer par cet escroc.
être
to be
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
ce
this (before a noun)
par
by, through / out of (motive)
se faire
to get oneself
l'escroc
the crook (m)
escroquer
to swindle
Questions & Answers about Nous nous sommes fait escroquer par cet escroc.
Why does this sentence use an infinitive (escroquer) when the English translation uses a past tense verb (swindled)?
This sentence uses the se faire plus infinitive construction. In French, to say you got something done to you (often something negative or accidental), you use the reflexive verb se faire followed by the action verb in its infinitive form. So, got swindled translates to the structure s'être fait escroquer.
Since the subject is nous and the auxiliary is sommes, why doesn't fait have an s at the end (faits)?
Normally, past participles of reflexive verbs used with être agree with the subject. However, there is a special rule for the verb faire: when faire is followed immediately by an infinitive (like escroquer), its past participle (fait) never changes. It is always invariable.
Could I just say Nous avons été escroqués instead?
Yes, that is the standard passive voice and it means we were swindled. However, using se faire plus an infinitive is very common in everyday French to express that something happened to the subject, similar to using the verb get instead of be in English (we got swindled versus we were swindled).
Is the c at the end of escroc pronounced?
No, the final c in escroc is completely silent. It is pronounced simply as es-cro.
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